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Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer Launches National Assault on Voter Laws [Perkins Coie]
www.insidesources.com ^ | October 15, 2020 | by Margaret Menge

Posted on 10/16/2020 11:21:06 AM PDT by Red Badger

Why has Marc Elias, the Democratic National Committee’s election lawyer, filed more than 50 lawsuits around the country challenging state election laws in advance of next month’s presidential election?

Elias says he’s fighting against “voter suppression.”

But most of the state laws he’s challenging have been in place for years — including when he was the legal adviser to the John Kerry and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. Why is Elias suddenly asking courts to overrule state election laws and count ballots that come in after Election Day, or force states to have unattended ballot collection boxes?

Someone who knows Elias and the Perkins Coie law firm where he works thinks there’s a better answer.

“What they’re trying to do is lower the bar a little bit in terms of what the requirements are,” says Fritz Knaak, who represented Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the bitterly contested 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race. Elias and Perkins Coie represented liberal challenger, Al Franken, who won the election despite significant questions about illegal voting.

Elias is the force behind an organization called Democracy Docket, which has teamed up with progressive groups to file more than 30 lawsuits in the weeks leading up to the November election.

He is perhaps best known for his role in the Russia collusion story. As the attorney for both the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaigns, he helped bankroll research by Fusion GPS that created the now-discredited “Steele dossier” used to obtain FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 race.

According to Knaak, Elias learned a lesson in the contested Minnesota U.S. Senate rate that he’s applying today.

He knows how important it is to get as many absentee and mail-in ballots approved as possible because Elias was sitting there in the courtroom in Minnesota 12 years ago listening as Knaak pleaded with the court to allow some 12,000 rejected absentee ballots to be counted.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that if all of those 12,000 had been counted, Norm probably would have won,” Knaak told InsideSources, “because a lot of them were ‘outstate’ [outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul], in areas where he had done strong and that’s where, at least in this state, we get our most Scandinavian, persnickety election judges, you know, ‘Oh, I don’t think that signature’s exactly right.’ People in the area around Minneapolis-St. Paul are far less concerned about such things, as a practical matter.”

Coleman was declared the winner on election night in 2008 by 725 votes, but after adjustments in subsequent days, that lead was whittled down to 215 votes and in accordance with the law, the state canvassing board ordered a hand recount. That recount concluded on Jan. 5, with Franken declared the winner by 225 votes.

“Looking back on it, their approach was obviously better than ours,” says Knaak. “They won.”

It was an extraordinary episode in American political history, with Al Franken seated as a U.S. senator on July 7, 2009, six months after Coleman’s term had ended.

Rejection of so many absentee ballots from many small towns, says Knaak, turned out to be the Coleman campaign’s downfall.

“We tried to say, these people clearly wanted to vote. They’re being frustrated by these technicalities. They’ve conformed with all of the other requirements. Let’s let them vote. And our Supreme Court said no,” he remembers.

The ballots were rejected for a myriad of reasons, many because they didn’t have a witness signature (required by law in Minnesota) and many others because they were missing a postmark.

Marc Elias, says Knaak, clearly learned a lesson in Minnesota that year.

“He was right there at the other table when all these things were being argued,” he says. “So they’re certainly keenly aware of what the various issues are and I think what he’s trying to do is minimize those obstacles, lower the bar.”

Among the states Democracy Docket has targeted are Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania — all swing states expected to play an outsized role in the final Electoral College count.

In Pennsylvania, Elias filed suit to force county boards of elections to accept late ballots that don’t arrive for a full week after the election. He also sued to force officials to count late ballots without a postmark to prove they were cast by Election Day.

Elias also sued to prevent county boards of elections from disqualifying ballots if the signatures don’t match those on file, and to prevent rejection of ballots that aren’t in the security envelope, and only inside of one envelope.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in and absentee ballots must be accepted if received by Friday, Nov. 6 and cannot be rejected for not having a visible postmark. Republicans have appealed to the Supreme Court and are awaiting a ruling.

On Saturday, in a separate but related ruling, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that ballots with signatures that don’t match those on file with elections offices cannot be rejected for this reason alone, and that ballots cannot be rejected because they aren’t in secrecy envelopes.

If the popular vote in Pennsylvania is close, all of these things will matter immensely.

More than 2.5 million voters have requested either absentee or mail-in ballots this year in Pennsylvania. They’ll be counted starting at 7 a.m. on Election Day in the various counties, with lawyers for both sides keeping a close watch.

Marc Elias


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Michigan; US: Minnesota; US: North Carolina; US: Pennsylvania; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 2020election; alfranken; clinton; democracydocket; dnc; election2020; fritzknaak; hillary; johnkerry; mailinballots; marcelias; markelias; mcauliffe; mn; normcoleman; perkinscoie; perkinscouie; russiagate
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1 posted on 10/16/2020 11:21:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

The Soros money is flowing.


2 posted on 10/16/2020 11:24:24 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (Socialism- Institutionalized Deprivation)
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To: Red Badger
How can you have ‘voter suppression’ in a country where prisoners, deceased and millions of illegals routinely vote?

Sorry-I don't get that!!

3 posted on 10/16/2020 11:24:33 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Barbarism is the absence of standards to which an appeal can be made" Y Gasset)
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To: Red Badger
We have now had mail-in ballots for years in Washington State. Any “close” election has multiple recounts until... surprise surprise, the Democrat wins. What is going on this year is all part of an ongoing plan to steal the election.
4 posted on 10/16/2020 11:25:52 AM PDT by fireman15
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To: fireman15

Don’t forget, Hilliary was supposed to be POTUS now and running for reelection, not Trump.

These plans have been in the works for DECADES!

It was all supposed to culminate in TOTAL Democrat Socialist Communist takeover in THIS YEAR’S ELECTION.......................


5 posted on 10/16/2020 11:29:03 AM PDT by Red Badger (Sine Q-Anon.....................very............)
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To: SMARTY

To them, ‘voter suppression’ means ‘You won’t let me cheat!’..................


6 posted on 10/16/2020 11:29:53 AM PDT by Red Badger (Sine Q-Anon.....................very............)
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To: Red Badger

The days of liberty and freedom are numbered...


7 posted on 10/16/2020 11:30:51 AM PDT by patriotfury ((May the fleas of a thousand camels occupy mo' ham mads tents!))
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To: Red Badger

Just another part of the deep dark democrat conspiracy to take over the nation. In reality everyone from Perkins should be in prison for what the have done trump and others over the years. They are just another arm of the democrat Mafia.


8 posted on 10/16/2020 11:31:21 AM PDT by Revel
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To: Red Badger

Hillary is not doing that for her health, or from the goodness of her heart which she does not have. Sometimes after Election day oust Joe Biden and work herself in his place. Her message to Harris will be short and to the point: “If you want to go on living, don’t make waves.” Your call. They could be replacing a president and vice president. As many people as Hillary is responsible for having killed, two more won’t make a difference.


9 posted on 10/16/2020 11:34:15 AM PDT by sport
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To: Red Badger

Think you were on this prior posting in re: NC

Marc Elias is in this up to his Perkie-Coy A@@— he was, of course Al Franken’s attorney who conducted the after election theft of the Senatorial election... with appalling “found” ballots.... the same larger modus operandi in his current
effort.

Here is the post in re Fed Judge temp restraining order:

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3890557/posts

An Update:

https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/news/42309/federal-judge-blocks-absentee-ballots-with-no-witnesses


10 posted on 10/16/2020 11:36:22 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: Red Badger

Right!


11 posted on 10/16/2020 11:36:33 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Barbarism is the absence of standards to which an appeal can be made" Y Gasset)
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To: sport
I don't know how this Elias avoided jail with his actions in the Dossier matter. BTW, he was the advisor to the Harris for President campaign FWIW. A very loyal dem central stooge.
12 posted on 10/16/2020 11:36:37 AM PDT by Mouton (The enemy of the people is the media.)
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To: sport

I think Hillary wants a SCOTUS seat. Nothing else is going to satisfy her vulgar ambition


13 posted on 10/16/2020 11:38:25 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Barbarism is the absence of standards to which an appeal can be made" Y Gasset)
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To: Red Badger

Clinton Foundation (which is interconnected with B&M Gates, Soros, Tides, Turner, Ford, and several other foundations), is very capable, and absolutely controls the DNC and it’s myriad anti-American global socialist organizations, and most importantly theassedia and press.

The analysis of some well read, has Obama literally being a little pawn and figurehead, taking his orders from, and being covered by the real power (foundations and global influencers, i.e. China/Russia). The Clinton’s are far more influential behind the scenes. However, at any time, even the Clinton’s could have been wacked, if they didn’t go along with their bosses in Beijing and Moscow.


14 posted on 10/16/2020 11:45:26 AM PDT by patriotfury ((May the fleas of a thousand camels occupy mo' ham mads tents!))
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To: Red Badger

Hillary will spend the rest of her life fighting against the man who took the bone out of her mouth and the people who helped him do that...


15 posted on 10/16/2020 11:45:29 AM PDT by caww (...This constant pretending the president is a problem is pure evil!...)
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To: SMARTY

If they didn’t vote Demonicrat, their voters were obviously suppressed.


16 posted on 10/16/2020 11:50:46 AM PDT by Little Ray (uan)
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To: headstamp 2
"The Soros money is flowing."

The Soros Group of Billionaires/Millionaires more than likely...

What are they going to do about ("Biden & Biden?)

17 posted on 10/16/2020 11:57:51 AM PDT by yoe (Vote for President Trump!..Keep America Great and protected by the US. Constitution.)
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To: Mouton
I, personally would like to see Hillary join Ginsberg tonight. I understand that I am in the minority on this and like the last time I commented on Hillary's health will be thoroughly chastised
18 posted on 10/16/2020 12:19:06 PM PDT by sport
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To: Red Badger

bump for reference.


19 posted on 10/16/2020 12:38:44 PM PDT by Robert357
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To: Red Badger

The Clintons developed this strategy for Al Gore’s 2000 campaign and have been honing it since then.


20 posted on 10/16/2020 12:45:31 PM PDT by Fedora
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